Deck and SB Guide Effective 11/1/23

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome back to Modern! Despite the Beans being on the rise, I’m relatively happy with where we are at! Scam, Rhinos, and Tron continue to be good matchups, and Yawg/Titan are still a pain. That’s basically the meta in a snapshot! I’ve been seeing less and less of Living End both online and in paper, so I have 2 fairly different SBs this month to account for this.

*** As usual, make sure to adjust your mid-match decisions based on the specifics of any list you face and use this as a guideline, rather than a hard and fast rule! Sometimes vibes > guide.***

Living End isn't real and it can't hurt me... Hammer

Cursed Hammer

SB Guides

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-3 Thopter - While I would like to play a 4th thopter, I couldn’t really find anything else to cut. I tried cutting the 2nd Forge Anew and didn’t like that. I also considered playing a 4 Thopter/2 Giver split. I think that is completely reasonable, but I prefer the 3/3 split at the moment.

-Giver of Runes - Giver is a very solid card, but can be a bit clunky when you are trying to streamline as much as possible. I am more likely to play a 3rd copy before moving to 1, but overall nothing big to note on this one. Card is solid.

-Esper Sentinel - Echoing what I said last month: Yeah… don’t cut this card. People overstate how good bowmasters is against Hammer on the whole, and this is no exception. Definitely board them out when they are bad though. Card is still pretty good vs 4C as well, as it helps us keep up in the early game.

-Nettlecyst - Echoing what I said last month, I liked this card a lot more about a month ago when 4C/UW weren’t all on Beanstalks. With their current configurations, grinding out 4C is simply not a reasonable plan, as they will always draw more cards than us and grind us out. If you wanted to play Nettlecyst as a tool against scam though, I think that is very reasonable.

-Strict Proctor - Same as last month; following up on that 4C issue, Proctor allows us to choke them on their mana rather than cards. This is a much better plan, and it gives us a very real shot to win that matchup. Additionally, Proctor throwing a pile of wrenches into Amulet’s plan is a really nice upside.

-Cursed Totem - Yawgmoth and Scales have seen a sharp rise in popularity (despite Scales’ pretty bad 4C matchup). In fact, the decks have seen a big enough bump to legitimize us putting specific haymakers in the 75 for them. While I ordinarily like hate bears and/or saga targets as my high-impact SB cards, nothing does quite what Cursed Totem does. The card shutting down Yawg, mana dorks, Haywire Mite, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, Ravager, Hangarback, Ballista, as well as many others means that these decks have ~2-4 outs to the card in their 75s. **Note that when you board in Totem: Giver, Gingerbrute, SFM activation, Paradise Mantle, and double Inkmoth activations are largely shut off (which is why you will see some more wonky sb’ing than usual). Additionally, if you are not expecting much Yawg/Scales, I would certainly play 1-2 of Totem max.

-Pithing Needle(s) - While Needle definitely has its utility, it is certainly a card that I think you can reasonably trim down to a 1-2-of rather than a 3-of. The reduction in the number of The One Rings and the rise of Beans means that redundant needles are less effective, and you can absolutely flood on them. Plus, with access to Totem, the redundant needles are less important than before.

-4/0 Drannith - Living End is quite unpopular at the moment (thanks RB Scam!), and as such, I think we can reasonably just concede the Living End matchup in the interest of picking up 4 sb slots. As a note, I do not believe you need Drannith to beat Rhinos, as their best draws will address the Drannith and kill you anyway. As for their “not best draws”, we tend to be quite favored there.

-SB Solitudes - While I absolutely love the card, I do believe that they all belong in the sb atm. You simply cannot really afford to draw them against UB Control, Tron, and 4C in the current meta. I would rather have the needle as an effective 5-of for the time being.

-Sanctifier - Sanctifier is a fine card. Despite my thoughts on how narrow it is, having access to the card can make your life much easier when you have THIS MUCH Scam in the metagame.

-Blacksmith’s Skill - Card is only in the Drannith-less SB because vs Rhinos we have a Pithing Needle that we really want to board out. Card is very cuttable, and you could absolutely cut the Needle from the main deck and add a 4th Thopter, 3rd Giver, Gift, or any number of cards in its place based on your taste.